Artist: Profanação
Country: Portugal
Label: Altare Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
From the ever-fertile Portuguese soil comes Profanação, a band that already released two demo tapes through M.D.M. in 2022 and an Altare Productions-released full-length album on cassette tape. Although the band hasn’t been around all too long and they have not spawn an impressive number of releases yet, the music would have you believe the opposite. There is nothing to show that we are dealing here with two musicians who have taken up hobbying on a lazy afternoon. ‘A Queda Das Religiões Abraâmicas’ is a thoroughly mature sounding Black Metal record worthy of your attention.
Altare Productions usually is known for its penchant for extremely raw, crude and harsh stuff. If it has Altare Productions printed on it, you are in for a treat if you count Raw/Lo-Fi Black Metal to your favourite genres. Although it would be mistake to label ‘A Queda Das Religiões Abraâmicas’ a polished Black Metal record, it is far more accessible than the average recording offered by the Portuguese label.
Profanação serves you with slightly raw and vigorous, yet well-balanced Black Metal. A combination that might not necessarily feels unique, but it is the powerful mix in which every instrument feels to have equal relevance which propels the band into its intense nature. Most prominent, however, are the rather loud drums and vocals, which give the music an overall propulsive sense of urgency. In addition, the eerie and rather unsettling melodies, especially in the second half of the record, allows Profanação to venture into some more unorthodox territories. At these occasions, with its oppressing atmosphere and an overall feeling of unease, the band bears some resemblances with current day Black Metal. Yet, other than the majority of the more or less typical W.T.C. Productions sort of bands, Profanação keeps its feet firmly into the Raw Black Metal tradition in terms of repetitiveness and overall gritty textures.
The term “accessibility” is a term that needs some perspective. It might be clear that this is not a clean sounding record by any means, nor is it a Black Metal-by-numbers sort of album. But put in the Altare Productions-catalogue, Profanação feels as one of the easier records to get into. Still, it needs a few spins to let it fully unfold its secrecies and overall ingenuity; there’s a lot to discover and the songs definitely grow with a few extra spins. Regardless of any personal view on ‘A Queda Das Religiões Abraâmicas’, it is clear that this is the band’s best effort to date and that fully justifies Altare Productions’ choice to opt for a vinyl release in addition to a cassette tape this time.
